Disco, dembow and discarded bras: Backstage with Latin music's next global superstar
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — It started with a computerized bassline on his laptop. Then a whimsical trill of falsetto. Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh.
It was then that 28-year-old Rauw Alejandro knew the kind of beat he needed for his song "Todo De Ti," or "Everything About You." Dembow, the reggaeton riddim that's become a staple of the Latin pop charts, was too lax. A plug-and-play trap beat was too ambient.
Alejandro needed something with more verve, more sparkle — perhaps a classic sound he first discovered on vinyl, collecting dust in a crate somewhere inside his father's den. He wasn't sure it would work in Spanish. But with its crisp, disco-revival beat, "Todo De Ti" rocketed to No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200 chart, went six times platinum in the U.S. and gave Alejandro permission to live out his '70s roller-boogie dreams in the accompanying music video.
After the long pandemic, he said, his rationale was simple: "There aren't enough artists dancing in the reggaeton world or making R&B music in Spanish. So why don't I do both?"
Alejandro, a
